Declaring War on Idleness

Greetings, my friend,

Welcome to The Arsenal, your bi-monthly resource for training and equipping you to live a set-apart lifestyle.

Let’s face an honest truth about ourselves we all encounter from time to time: We all fall off the wagon from time to time. You cheat on your diet one time, and then you slowly begin backsliding right back into your old eating habits of going through the drive thru or consuming sugary foods more than you’d like to admit. Or perhaps you’ve been staying up late watching TV, YouTube videos, or scrolling social media, and you then lack motivation to get those workouts done in the mornings as often or at all because of your now-dysfunctional sleep schedule and lack of energy throughout your day.

These types of scenarios are inevitable, since we’re incapable of being perfect. This becomes especially apparent as we try to grow closer to The Father and center our lives on living out our purpose and putting ourselves in the best physical, emotional, and spiritual state as possible. Our Messiah told us that “the spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 27:40).

Yet despite this fact, this is nowhere near an excuse to give up on your goals and purpose for the Kingdom. Because ultimately, the implications of slacking off go far beyond eating some junk food or not prioritizing building up your strength and cardiovascular endurance: If we don’t get up and fight our flesh daily, we breed idleness in our lives, leading not just to a mediocre, non-substantial life, but worse, potential sin.

As believers in pursuit of becoming our best selves, we should be looking to Scripture for much of our guidance to living our best lives. And in the book of Proverbs specifically, a text centered on the gaining of wisdom, it has quite a bit to say about slacking off. Consider some examples:

This certainly paints a more grim picture than one might expect: Being lazy isn’t just harmful for your self-development: it’s a matter of life and death. And as for that last verse, perhaps the lazy man being killed by his lack of hard work refers to something beyond just a physical death: perhaps it has a spiritual side. Yeshua taught us through a valuable parable that not acting upon the mission He’s given you can have dire consequences. Check out Luke 19:11-27 when you get a chance.

All of this is NOT to say that our salvation hinges upon good works and/or keeping the Law in conjunction with our belief in Yeshua’s sacrifice. Rather, both of those things should stem from desires placed inside of us because of our salvation and wanting to obey Him while walking just as He walked (1 John 2:3-6).

And don’t get it twisted brothers and sisters; we know for a fact our Messiah takes bearing fruit through good works while keeping the Law very seriously, and shows us how well we do those things will have a definite, eternal impact, despite those things not being a salvation requirement!

Consider:

And all of this can be summarized by the famous verse written by the apostle James: Our faith without works is dead. Simple. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. It’s a logical concept, but one that many sadly fail to fully understand and realize the eternal implications of. And once again, even as I write these newsletters for you to read, I think about how I even don’t take this call to action as seriously as I could be.

But I’m here to help you with that if you find yourself in this same dilemma. What can you start doing to live the godly, fulfilling lifestyle that constantly bears good fruit that you long for? While it may not be an overnight transition into the life you seek, here are a couple big things I’ve learned over the course of my walk thus far.

Tip #1 - Deny Yourself 

The Gospel of Matthew records our Messiah teaching this incredibly valuable principle to His disciples:

Denial. Now that’s something we humans aren’t often a fan of. Especially when other people prevent us from having what we want. But yet, Yeshua tells us that’s what we’re supposed to do to follow Him and, consequently, receive eternal rewards as a result! But it begs the question, what exactly are we denying when we deny ourselves?

We humans are flesh. And that flesh has a mind of its own, one that doesn’t long for The Father or His ways, but rather, seeks to meet its own needs and gratification of its desires. The apostle Paul elaborates on this concept in his own writings:

Based on these passages, I would argue that to deny ourselves is to deny the innate desires within us; more specifically, the selfish ones that we naturally gravitate towards that not only solely serve ourselves in this relationship with Yeshua, but also lead us to become more emotionally-driven than spiritually-driven.

Paul challenges us believers to imitate Messiah as he does (1 Corinthians 1:11), and when we look at Messiah’s work on the cross, we can easily see that Yeshua was 100% spiritually driven and gave no room for His human emotions to take over. This fact is fully preserved for us in the Gospel of Luke in the following account:

Yeshua’s human nature here was to give into His fear (and any other emotion He may have been feeling for that matter) and run from His mission. But yet, this passage shows us that He still chose to submit to The Almighty and let that selfless desire and love for others beside Himself lead Him to willingly suffer and atone for all of mankind’s sins; past, present, and future. HalleluYah!

This is how we are to deny ourselves: Allowing ourselves to be spiritually driven, and consequently, selflessly giving up anything important to us that doesn’t add to and even takes away from living a godly life, even if it means radically changing your life. This can be as simple as reducing or eliminating time spent on things like social media or video games to drastic changes like cutting off unhealthy relationships with people around you. Or perhaps even finding ways to kill harmful, addictive tendencies within you that are very harmful to your walk with Yahweh.

Don’t let your emotions keep you attached to what’s unhealthy for you. Pray for the Spirit to place and preserve a drive within you to always lead you toward Yeshua, His ways, and the goal of the upward call of Messiah. And remember, in Messiah, you are a new creation: As Paul wrote:

If you profess that Yeshua is Lord of your life, and you walk in that truth, your fleshly desires have no power over the Holy Spirit within you. Always remember that, and learn to listen to the Helper our good Father sent.

Tip #2 - Build Discipline Through a Routine of Obedience

Even with the Spirit inside of us directing us and helping us lead more obedient and selfless lives, we aren’t perfect and we must still wrestle with our human tendencies. And some days, we might not “feel as motivated” as other days to deny ourselves and our wants and leave our comfort zones in order to work toward being a better servant of Messiah.

Motivation is a wonderful thing, and an essential part of trying to become accomplished! The feeling of being motivated is a powerful driver, almost as if you had a fire within you spurring you to do something. I’ve seen some wonderful fruit result from my own and others’ days where we feel on top of the world and like we can do anything.

But sadly, for too many people, that feeling of being motivated is the only thing often relied upon to actually take action. And when we do this, it reveals relying on motivation’s fatal flaw: motivation inevitably ebbs and flows. This is true because no matter how hard you try to psych yourself up, there will always be outside factors that have an influence on you, such as your health, your schedule, and your relationships. These things can become physically and mentally draining, which, in many cases, also drains your drive to do big things.

Again, none of us are perfect, and we’ll all be inevitably robbed of our potential some days for one reason or another. But what if I told you there was a better way to help yourself stay on track?

Rather than waiting to hit a motivated peak again, let me introduce you to hard-earned discipline.

Here’s a metaphor to help you understand the importance of discipline. Imagine there are two potted plants. One sits outside on your front porch, and the other is a decorative piece for inside the house. Both of these plants represent two people. One plant only receives water whenever it rains, but the other plant is watered daily. Think of the rain as motivation to do big things. When it rains, the outdoor plant receives way more water at one time than the indoor plant, and it even has a little bit to store in its roots and soil around it, and it thinks it’ll last quite some time! The indoor plant, on the other hand, only received its usual daily dose of water from a watering can. Think of the water from the watering can as building discipline.

But now, let’s fast forward a little. Turns out there’s been a dry spell for some time, as it’s also the middle of the summer in Arizona. The outdoor plant has long used up all the water stored in its roots and the soil around it, and it’s struggling to stay alive from the recent lack of rain. However, the indoor plant that’s been watered a little every day remains greener and healthier than ever despite the recent drought. And because it’s on a consistent watering schedule, it shows no signs of its growth slowing down.

This principle is key for doing big things for the Lord. Building discipline little by little each day always results in greater growth in the long run. Sometimes you won’t always feel like being disciplined is making a difference, and especially when it becomes difficult to stay consistent. But eventually, you’ll be able to look back in many years and see all you’ve accomplished because you worked little by little each day rather than waiting for those inconsistent and short-lived bursts of motivation.

So how do you become more disciplined in your daily life?

#1 - Pray for boldness and endurance in your relationship with Yahweh. 

To set us up for success, let us bring our struggles before our Messiah, who, through becoming man, isn’t someone who can’t relate to our struggles, and expresses extreme compassion towards us. Pray for boldness to do hard things like He did, and for endurance to make little steps each day toward your greater calling, even if you aren’t always sure what that looks like or if your daily steps will even make that much of a difference. Because Scripture also says:

And also,

#2 - Create a routine and booby trap your days to stick with it!

I want you to stop and think about what’s most important to you each day. What are your top three daily activities in your free time you’re most excited about each day? More importantly, once you’ve developed that list, analyze them in this context: do those things have the potential to help you build the Messiah’s Kingdom in some capacity? Or at the very least, are they beneficial to your physical, mental, and spiritual health?

This is a lesson I had to learn relatively recently when it comes to time management, because it’s also extremely easy to overcommit sometimes. And doing this in my own life helped me trim a lot of the fat when it comes to the little itty bitty things that waste my time each day: Just like staying consistent in the good things builds discipline, the opposite is also true: the little things that waste your time each day add up and can hurt you in the long run.

Once you have your list, start pruning. Remove anything that consistently distracts you or doesn’t add to your walk with The Father or your development into the best version of yourself, no matter what it is or how insignificant it may seem. And if you don’t end up with three things that fall into those aforementioned categories, that’s ok! You now have room to find new activities and search for new things that are helpful for you.

Also, you know that rectangular thing in your hand you’re probably reading this on? While it can be the arch nemesis of productivity sometimes, learn to use it as a valuable asset! In conjunction with the daily routine you’ve now developed, set timers, reminders, and alarms to help you manage your time and get things done! I would also recommend setting up your phone in a minimalist fashion by sticking to using essential apps only and keeping notifications at a minimum (at least during certain parts of your day). Finally, physical sticky notes, calendars, and to-do lists are also a great idea to give you a visual of your progress and outlining an agenda for yourself to follow in to serve Yah and build discipline in the good things at the same time.

Tip #3 - Accountability to the Body

Finally, here’s one more hard truth I hope you realize: sometimes no matter how hard we try and no matter how well we set ourselves up for success, we can and will still fall short from time to time. But there’s good news! You’re not the only one on this walk of faith. There are other believers out there wishing to show love, compassion, and give their all to help you back up when you fall. And the best part is, this is yet another way we can live out the exhortation to imitate our Messiah. Just as we seek help from Him when we can’t handle something on our own, we should be willing to be a voice of encouragement, support, and wise counsel when those within the Body have need of it.

But perhaps your issues go beyond just the stereotypical issues many people go through, such as un-forgiveness, impatience, greed, envy, etc. Maybe there’s something deeper and more serious you’ve been struggling with that you don’t wish for other people to know about you, lest your fear of judgement and irreversible damage to your reputation come true. Or perhaps the opposite is true, where you feel like your issues are simply you being petty and you don’t want to burden others with problems you can easily handle yourself if you would just “lock in” and actually try to be a better person.

In both of these cases, there exists a deeply rooted issue preventing you from receiving help with making real changes in your life: pride. As the first sin Adam and Eve committed that allowed sin and death to enter the world, and ironically, the sin that the Bible seems to condemn the most overall, this character trait can take a tight hold on you before you even realize it, and before long, you’re stuck between a rock and a hard place: You want to overcome your issues once and for all, but you think too highly of yourself to run the risk of others thinking you’re not as perfect as you make yourself out to be. Thus the loop repeats over and over, and you feel trapped.

If this is you, here’s some advice to break the cycle: Your life is supposed to represent holiness before The Father and be a witness of His power of salvation before men, NOT a journey towards personal achievement and validation.

And what does holiness truly mean? The first aspect of holiness is its definition: it means to be set apart, and it’s also the word used to represent Yah’s character. When we look to our Messiah as our example, we see this character exemplified in Him. He never sought for others to like Him or demanded praise and worship from His followers. In fact, it was quite the opposite! Yeshua knew that throwing down the oral law and traditions of the religious leaders of His time would certainly challenge the status quo and cause a stir among some of the people. Additionally, in His own words, He said that He did not come to be served, but to serve us, and also to fulfill His God-given mission of giving His life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45).

Serving others is one of the greatest ways to kill any underlying pride that has taken root in any aspect of your life. By humbling yourself before those around you, you clear away any subconscious attitudes of superiority and trying to puff yourself up and begin to create a mindset of gaining gratification from loving your neighbor as yourself and wanting to serve them in any need they have.

The second aspect to holiness to understand is that just as Messiah was without sin, which allowed Him to be the holy, atoning sacrifice for us, we cannot truly be holy without repentance and forgiveness of sins through Messiah. This is where a servant’s attitude and repentance go hand-in-hand: When we begin to desire to serve others in our communities and also begin to operate within The Father’s purpose for us, we begin to see how the removal of pride in our mindset reveals just how much we fall short sometimes. And rather than feeling guilty because we’ve fallen short of our own glorified image of ourselves, we feel guilty because our sin can affect our servitude of loving one another and obeying Yahweh.

So circling back to our original topic, what happens after we have this realization of our sin, and we also realize we can’t always tackle it ourselves? With our pride aside, and us seeking help, the next step forward is to confess our sin to those we trust.

Scripture asserts this is a very beneficial and borderline essential exercise, with the apostle James having written the following:

It’s also important to realize that withholding this confession or trying to hide our sin can have consequences! King Solomon, in his wisdom, wrote:

Stop wasting time in your sin, my dear reader. Learn to serve others around you in pursuit of your God-given purpose, and through being spiritually driven, seek forgiveness from The Father and from any person you’ve wronged. And most importantly, even if you haven’t sinned against anyone, ask someone you trust if they would be open to being your accountability partner with issues you struggle with. You then at least one person praying over you for supernatural healing and wisdom on how to make sure you don’t struggle with any issue anymore.

But sin aside, it’s also wonderful to have an accountability partner for encouraging and motivating you to do your best to serve Yah! Choose that person wisely, because you not only want someone who will always cheer for you from the sidelines, but will also be there for you every step of the way, from start to finish, in your journey to reaching your goals in life.

I truly challenge you take everything I said here to heart, because these things are critical for not falling victim to the temptations, desires, and habits of our flesh and the worldly culture around us. As our Messiah said, “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation” (Matthew 26:41). Through these tools I’ve provided for you here today, I ask that you use them, along with the power of prayer, to truly declare war on idleness in your life and pursue only the best for what Yahweh has for you! Don’t settle for mediocracy in life because you don’t feel like you can do better. Rather, “Fear Yahweh all the day long” (Proverbs 23:17) and “let your light shine before men” (Matthew 5:16).

Be blessed.